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Andrew Samwick's avatar

Quoting from a blog post (https://samwick.blogspot.com/2015/10/escrow-for-common-good.html) I wrote about a decade ago:

Why should a university be paid tuition in full based on the proceeds of a loan that may not be repaid? The university has every opportunity to convey knowledge and teach skills that increase the likelihood of repayment. But it does not bear the financial consequences of a loan not being repaid. Instead, put a portion of the tuition payment in escrow, and release it only as the student loan is repaid. This arrangement provides a financial incentive for universities to provide a better education and to avoid enrolling students who are unlikely to be able to convert this education into enough earnings to repay their loans. These two issues are at the heart of our student debt repayment problem. The problem is financial -- the solution should also have a financial component.

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Jill's avatar

Yes. The solution should have a financial component that extracts the debt burden from the student's name.

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Elwood Watson's avatar

My peronal opinion is tht public education should be free.

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Dianne Skagen McBeth's avatar

It is. It’s called public libraries. The curriculum, funded by public dollars now should indeed be available free. Anyone who wants to self educate should have access to that curriculum and publicly owned resources like university libraries, to learn as they wish. As for “credit” that should come from an assessment of learning fee (eg: a comprehensive exam). Paying for months of mediocre lectures is what costs too much. Give it over to AI.

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Elwood Watson's avatar

College is more than just academics. It is learning new things, interacting with indviduals from varied walks of life, exposing your mind to a plethora of opinons and options, learning to make decisions on your own etc... In short, many peoople learn to grow up. Personally, I feel that is highly important.

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Elwood Watson's avatar

Thank you!

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April's avatar

Yikes. I haven’t read the article yet but I will. I would be in default without income driven repayment. I paid off all my undergrad debt long ago but took on more to get an unfunded PhD. Stupid me but I had some very bad advisors whom I trusted. I realized I didn’t want the PhD halfway through and could not afford to not work a regular job while pursuing it so I withdrew. It was a terrible mistake to start it. I’ll read the article. I wish I had gotten a teacher certification instead.

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Jill's avatar

Yeeeeesh. The amount of bad advice when it comes to financing one's degree truly knows no bounds in this country.

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FJSN's avatar

Two things can be true at once - that she was probably the worst political appointment to the DOE and that the DOE is a pointless bloated agency and should be abolished.

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Carolyn's avatar

I didn’t think that TFP running her was an endorsement of her opinions but more of a “She’s going to say the quiet parts out loud now”. Sometimes they run both sides of the debate together and sometimes they don’t, but unless it’s from the Editors I don’t ever take it as anything other than voicing diverse perspectives. I guffawed when I saw it.

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Jill's avatar

Choosing to include someone may not be endorsing their opinions per se, but if they're sending their message out to millions, it's platforming them. See also: Piers Morgan and his motley assortment of antisemites on his show. It's the same idea.

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Carolyn's avatar

Platforming yes but she wasn’t voicing hate speech. Again, I laughed when I saw that Betsy had joined the chat. She’s not very self aware.

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Dianne Skagen McBeth's avatar

From a northern neighbour - there is no need for a federal department of education. The more local, the better the decisions and more likely the accountability.

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Jill's avatar

There's no need for people like Devos running education. We can all agree on that.

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